Greeks raise container shipping presence

Greece’s cash-rich shipowners are using the financial crisis facing German shipowners to increase their presence in container shipping, where they are not now a big force.

Recent transactions have seen Greek owners buy container ships either directly from struggling owners or from shipyards. Nearly all the deals appear to involve German owners, who own the vast majority of container ships chartered to shipping lines.

In contrast to their country, Greece’s ship owners have remained financially sound because of the strong performance of the dry bulk and tanker sectors in which they specialize.

Greek owners own about 17% of the world’s ships, but only about 5% of container ships.

Shipowners in Germany, the Key country behind the European Union’s bail-out of Greece, are suffering from exposure to the crisis-hit container shipping sector. Germany’s public has also become reluctant to invest in KG funds, the traditional means of raising funds for ship purchases, after many have run into financial trouble.

Among recent transactions, New York-listed Paragon Shipping announced on June 30 that it was buying two medium-sized container ships under construction at Kiel’s Howaldtswerke shipyard for €40m (US$50M) each.

Michael Bodouroglou, Paragon’s Chairman, said it was logical to conclude the ships were selling at relatively low prices because of the financial problems of the owner that ordered them. Because non-German owners almost never order container ships from German yards, the owner was almost certainly German.

“Financially healthy companies would rather hold on to the assets than have to sell at these historically low values,” Mr Bodouroglou said. “It is well known that especially the German market has financial problems because they bought at historically high values.”

Another Athens-based, New York-listed dry bulk operator, Diana Shipping, announced on June 21 that it was buying a pair of container ships for €37.3M each from the Blohm and Voss shipyard in Emden, northern Germany. London-listed Goldenport Holdings, also based in Athens, announced on June 25 that it was seeking US$35M extra capital to buy 4 container ships.

Evangelos Marinakis, who bought 2 new container ships earlier this year, said: “I am optimistic about the future of the container trade.”—Paul A. Ebeling, Jnr. www.livetradingnews.com

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